Oregon intends to bring climate change lessons to schools

Oregon legislators are aiming to make the state the second in the nation to mandate climate change classes for K-12 public schools, further fueling the U.S. education culture wars.

Dozens of Oregon high school students have supported the bill, saying they are deeply concerned about climate change. Some teachers and parents say climate change education can help the next generation better deal with it, but others want schools to focus on reading, writing and math after test scores have plummeted since the pandemic.

Sarah Stapleton, professor of education at the University of Oregon, holds drawings and letters from elementary school students asking lawmakers to stop climate change after testifying at a hearing at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem, Oregon on Thursday, March 9, 2023, in favor of a bill. which will require climate change education in public schools from kindergarten through 12th grade. (AP Photo/Claire Rush)

Schools across the US have found themselves at the center of a political struggle over the curriculum and how issues such as gender, sex education and race should be taught, and whether they should be taught at all.

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One of the bill’s main sponsors, Democratic Senator James Manning, said even elementary school students told him climate change was important to them.

“We’re talking about third and fourth graders who have the vision to understand how quickly this world is changing,” he said at a State Capitol hearing Thursday in Salem.

High school sophomore Gabrielle Burke holds a printed copy of her testimony in support of an Oregon bill that would require climate change education in public schools from kindergarten through 12th grade before testifying at a hearing at the State Capitol in Salem, Oregon. on Thursday. March 9, 2023 (AP Photo/Claire Rush)

Connecticut has the only U.S. state law requiring climate change regulations, and according to law researchers, such a law may have first been introduced in Oregon. Legislators in California and New York are considering similar bills.

Manning’s bill requires every school district in Oregon to develop a climate change curriculum within three years that takes into account the environmental, social, cultural, political, and mental dimensions of climate change.

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It’s unclear how Oregon will enforce the law. Manning told The Associated Press that he is going to drop the unpopular proposal of financial penalties against counties that do not comply, but did not say if there will be another plan.

At this time, the bill does not specify how many hours of instruction the state department of education needs to approve the district’s curriculum.

Most states have standards of instruction, mostly set by state boards of education, that include climate change, although their extent varies by state. Twenty states and Washington, D.C., have specifically adopted the so-called Next Generation Science Standards, which encourage middle school students to study climate science and high school students to receive lessons on how human activities affect the climate.

New Jersey’s educational standards are considered the broadest. For the first time this school year, climate change is included not only in the study of science, but in all subjects, such as art, English and even physical education.

In a hearing room at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem, Oregon on Thursday, March 9, 2023, high school students testify (right) as others wait in line to support a bill that would require climate change. changing education in public schools from kindergarten to 12th grade. (AP Photo/Claire Rush)

Several teenagers testified at the State Capitol in favor of the bill. Not a single student presented oppositional testimony.

“After 100 years, we will have to teach our children what trees are because there are none left? The thought terrifies me,” said high school sophomore Gabriel Burke. “My generation must learn about climate change from a young age for our survival.”

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Some teachers testified in support of the bill. But others say they are already struggling to cope with the pandemic’s learning losses. Adding climate change to reading, writing, math, science and social studies is “hard work that will ultimately fall on the shoulders of teachers,” said Kyler Pace, an elementary school teacher in Sherwood, Oregon.

Recent polls by Columbia University College of Education and the Yale Climate Communications Program show that most Americans believe climate change and global warming should be taught in schools. But climate change is still seen by some as a politically divisive issue, and Pace said making the subject compulsory could increase tensions in schools.

Nicole De Graff, a self-proclaimed parental advocate and former GOP legislative candidate, testified that her children, ages 9, 15 and 16, are “tired of being overwhelmed by fears like COVID.”

High school students sit on a bench outside the Oregon State Capitol Building in Salem, Oregon on Thursday, March 9, 2023, before testifying at a hearing in support of a bill that would require climate change education in public schools from kindergarten through 12 th class. . (AP Photo/Claire Rush)

High school sophomore Gabrielle Burke testifies in favor of an Oregon bill that would require climate change education in public schools from kindergarten through 12th grade during a hearing at the State Capitol in Salem, Oregon, Thursday, March 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Claire Rush)

In Pennington, NJ, health educator Suzanne Horsley is committed to delivering age-appropriate lessons on a topic that can be challenging. In K-2 gym class at Toll Gate High School, she plays a game of imaginary trees, using bean bags representing carbon to show the students that fewer trees means more carbon in the atmosphere.

In the Horsley Lesson Plan for Teens, students will learn how climate change is disproportionately affecting low-income communities. They look at air quality maps in areas with high industrial activity or vehicular traffic.

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According to Horsley, students tend to feel like they have some ability to influence their world. “Whether it’s conserving water or finding ways to plant more trees or take care of existing trees… they want to feel empowered.”